#4778

Public Notice - International Selection Procedure

Recruitment of  a Research Trainee  with a Master Degree (employment contract) to obtain a doctoral degree under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network GA 101169245

FCiências.ID/2024/ IBEB/2

FCiências.ID - Associação para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento de Ciências, through its President of the Administration Board, hereby announces the opening of an international call for the recruitment of  a Research Trainee  with a MSc Degree, under the FCiências.ID Scientific Research Career, within the scope of the scope of the project “PROMOTE: PRostate cancer OMics Oriented inTErvention” (Ref. HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-101169245), financed by the European Union´s Horizon Europe research & innovation programme under the Grant Agreement No. 101169245), under the scope of a Maria Sklodowska- Curie Doctoral Network. The selected candidate will be hired in the form of a(n)  indefinite duration fixed-term employment contract , on an exclusive regime, according to the Portuguese Labour Code and complementary legislation.

I. Admission Requirements

The successful candidate must demonstrate eligibility according to the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions eligibility requirements as doctoral candidate. Please see pages 9 and 10 in the document “Guide for applicants - MSCA DN 2023_v2.2”: Contact support (europa.eu), and fully comply with the following requirements:

1. Must have completed a Masters' degree* in Biomedical Engineering, Physics Engineering, Electronic/Electrotechnical Engineering, Information Technology Engineering or similar;
2. Demonstrated scientific and/or professional experience in programming in MATLAB and/or Python, preferentially applied to medicine - information provided in the CV and/or in the motivation letter;
3. Demonstrated scientific and/or professional experience in medical signal and image processing - information provided in the CV and/or in the motivation letter;
4. Demonstrated scientific and/or professional experience in machine learning and/or artificial intelligence algorithms, in medicine-related problems - information provided in the CV and/or in the motivation letter;
5. You must not have a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment;
6. Mobility rule: The applicant — at the date of recruitment — should not have resided in Portugal for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to recruitment, and not have carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in that country. For refugees under the Geneva Convention (1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol), the refugee procedure (i.e. before refugee status is conferred) will not be counted as ‘period of residence/activity in the country of the beneficiary’.

* Please note that Degrees obtained in foreign countries need a Portuguese Recognition issued by a Portuguese high degree Institution, according to the Decree-Law nr. 66/2018, of August 16th and the Ministerial Order nr. 33/2019, of January 25th. The presentation of such Recognition is mandatory for contract signature. More information can be obtained in: https://www.dges.gov.pt/en/pagina/degree-and-diploma-recognition.

II. Preferential Requirements

1. R&D activity in research units - information provided in the CV and/or in the motivation letter;
2. Proficiency in English (written and spoken), equivalent to level C1 or above of the Common European Framework of References/CEFR - you may attach language certificates); knowledge in Portuguese will be considered an advantage - information provided in the CV and/or in the motivation letter;
3. Experience in participating in national and/or international scientific projects in the scientific area(s) of this call - information provided in the CV and/or in the motivation letter;
4. Scientific publications: scientific experience demonstrated by publications as author in international scientific journals and/or international conferences - information provided in the CV and/or in the motivation letter;
5. Relevant scientific and/or professional training - information provided in the CV and/or in the motivation letter.

III. Applicable Law

1. Portuguese Labour Code, as approved by Law No. 93/2019, of September 04th, in its current version (CT);
2. Administrative Procedure Code, as published in Decree-Law No. 4/2015, of January 7th, in its current version (CPA).

IV. Work plan

The work plan tasks are as follows:

1) Develop pipeline for pathomics feature extraction from deep learning (DL) models

2) Develop and validate DL based pathomics models for Prostate Cancer stratification and prediction of progression & recurrence

3) Statistical study of associations between imaging -omics features and proteomics features

Planned secondments: BRFAA (Greece): evaluating pathomics model in tissue images; KRESK (Portugal): Statistical associations between imaging (MRI and pathology) with proteomics. 

The work plan is included in tasks WP1 and WP3 of the project PROMOTE (https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/275491).

V. Composition of the Jury

The members of the jury are:

• President - Raquel Cruz da Conceição, Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa;
• 1st Member of the jury - Daniela Marques Godinho, Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa;
• 2nd Member of the jury - Seán Michael Finn, Kresk Healthcare Solutions;
• 1st Alternate Member of the jury - Nuno Miguel de Pinto Lobo e Matela, Instituto de Biofísica e Engenharia Biomédica, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa;
• 2nd Alternate Member of the jury – Nuno Ricardo da Cruz Garcia, LASIGE, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisboa.

VI. Place of work

Work will be developed at the facilities of Research Center IBEB – Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering, in Campo Grande, Lisboa, Portugal.

VII. Contract Duration

The contract is fully funded by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action. The successful candidate has to enrol in the PhD Programme at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal. The full-time indefinite duration fixed-term employment contract , exclusive regime, is expected to start in February 2025, and will last until the Work Plan referred to in section IV is completed. It will have an expected duration of 36 months, will not exceed the limits set in the RCD, including an initial experimental trial period of 30 days.

VIII. Monthly Allowance

The successful candidates will receive an attractive salary in accordance with the MSCA regulations for Early Stage Researchers. The exact (net) salary will be confirmed upon appointment and is dependent on local tax regulations and on the country correction factor (to allow for the difference in cost of living in different EU Member States). The salary includes a living allowance, a mobility allowance and a family allowance (if applicable). The guaranteed PhD funding is for 36 months. In addition to their individual scientific projects, all contracts will benefit from further continuing education, which includes secondments, a variety of training modules as well as transferable skills courses and active participation in workshops and conferences.

IX. Evaluation of applications

1. Failure to comply with the Admission Requirements implies the non-admission of candidates in absolute merit.
2. The final classification of candidates is given on a scale of 0 to 100%.
3. Based on the assessment of the candidates' scientific and curricular background  each member of the jury presents a justified proposal for admission (final classification equal to or greater than 75%) or exclusion (final classification below 75%) for each candidate, according to the evaluation criteria referred to in no. 4. 
4. Evaluation of the relative merit of candidates, will rely on the following criteria:

• Scientific publications in the area of the call - 20%;
• Curriculum Vitae – 40%
• Letter of motivation - 20%;
• Participation in scientific projects in the area of the call - 10%;
• Assessment of reference letter(s), which must include contact details of referees - 10%;
• Interview, if deemed necessary by the jury - 20%.

5. The jury may decide to interview the 4 best ranked candidates [in criteria a) to e) of no. 4], for clarifications and improved explanations of curricular elements. If there is an interview, the sum of the classification obtained in the evaluation criteria a) to e) will correspond to 80% of the final classification and the interview will correspond to 20%.
6. The jury shall deliberate by means of a roll-call vote based on the evaluation criteria.
7. Minutes of the jury meetings are drawn up, summarizing all relevant elements considered by jury members, as well as their individual votes and justifications.
8. After completion of the evaluation process, the jury will draw up a ranking of successful candidates with their classifications.
9. Hiring will be decided by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of FCiências.ID, based on the final jury recommendation.
10. The evaluation results will be published on the website of the FCiências.ID ("Concursos" tab). The candidates will be individually notified of the evaluation results by e-mail sent to the address indicated in the "Personal Data" section of the submitted form.
11. With the notification referred to in no. 10, the hearing phase of interested parties referred to in Article 121 et seq. of the CPA will begin, and last for ten working days.
12. Any possible pronouncement of the candidate in a prior hearing must be addressed to the President of the jury and submitted in writing to concursos@fciencias-id.pt. The President of the jury will convene a jury’s meeting to produce the final decision, within thirty working days.
13. Within five working days of the final jury decision, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of FCiências.ID will approve it and the candidates will be notified.
14. The communication between FCiências.ID (concursos@fciencias-id.pt) and the candidates will be electronic and will comply with the following rules:
    1. At the time of electronic submission of any document - namely in the case of no. 12 - the candidates must generate proof of "sent message".
    2. FCiências.ID will send an email message acknowledging documents received to the email address used by the candidates, within two working days.
    3. In case of absence of a confirmation receipt by FCiências.ID – showing the possibility of technical problems that should neither be the responsibility of the candidate nor FCiências.ID - the candidates should contact FCiências.ID, with the proof referred to in point (a), to ensure delivery and proper receipt of the documents concerned.

X. Processing of personal data

1. FCiências.ID - Associação para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento de Ciências, as the responsible for processing the personal data, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, collects and processes the personal data requested in the context the job application, under paragraphs b) and c) of Article 6.1 of the General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD).
2. The personal data shall be kept for the period necessary for the execution of the purposes for which they are intended, and the processing and protection, in an appropriate and diligent manner, of the confidentiality and integrity of such data shall be ensured through appropriate technical and organisational measures.
3. Personal data may be transmitted to third parties, namely the entity funding the research project, solely for the purposes specifically established. In this sense, whenever necessary the transfer of personal data to countries outside the European Union and/or international organizations, compliance with the applicable legal provisions shall be ensured.
4. You have the right to request access, rectification, erasure, limitation of processing, the right to object and also data portability (if technically feasible) by sending an e-mail to: dpo@fciências-id.pt. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the National Data Protection Commission.
5. For more information, we recommend that you consult the Internal Rules of Data Protection of FCiências.ID - Association for Research and Development of Sciences at https://fciencias-id.pt/.

XI. Compliance with public policies

1. FCiências.ID actively promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, so that no candidate can be privileged, benefited, disadvantaged or deprived of any right or exempt from any duty due to, inter alia, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, economic situation, education, social origin or condition, genetic heritage, reduced working capacity, disability, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological beliefs and trade union membership.
2. Under the terms of D.L. No. 29/2001, of February 3rd, a disabled candidate has a preference in equal classification, which prevails over any other legal preference. Candidates must declare their respective degree of disability, the type of disability and the means of communication / expression to be used in the selection process, under the terms of the above-mentioned diploma.

XII. Submission of Applications

1. The present call will be open from the 7th of November 2024 to the 20th of November 2024.
2. The application and all the required documents must be submitted in Portuguese or English.
3. Applications will be submitted online, through the electronic platform of FCiências.ID (http://concursos.fciencias-id.pt).
4. On the electronic platform, applicants will complete a mandatory section on Personal Data [name, address, date of birth, contact email, nationality and scientific identifiers] and upload files with the documents listed below:

• Detailed curriculum vitae, which fully complies with the Admission Requirements, in PDF format (written in English) - mandatory;
• A motivation letter clearly demonstrating that the candidate has an adequate profile for the position  - mandatory;
• Most significant Scientific document during academic path (in Portuguese or English), for example Masters dissertation or a journal publication. An additional four publications relevant to the objectives of the Work Plan may also be included- mandatory;
• Reference letter(s) with contact details of the referees (maximum 2) - mandatory;
• Digital copies of documents proving formal academic degrees required in the call and/or other scientific and professional qualifications - original documents must be provided in case of actual recruitment - mandatory;
• Other documents that candidates consider relevant for the assessment of their scientific merit, or to declare the personal situation in the cases covered in section XI-2 of this Notice - optional.

5. By decision of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of FCiências.ID, candidates who do not submit the documents identified in no. 4 will not be admitted to the call. In case of doubts, the Chairman may also invite candidates to substantiate specific data or statements with official supporting documents, before accepting the candidates’ submission.

This Public Note was approved by the jury on the 6th of November 2024.